Wandering Cowboy
by Marcus Reyner
Summary: To some Cowboys, "home" is where you lay your head down. To Johnny, it's the Bebop.
1. Tank!

_Click_. The safety of Johnny's Smith & Wesson 5906 slid to the firing position nice and smooth, well-maintained despite its age.

It was made before the Gate Disaster, long before Johnny was born. 2004, in fact. It was older than anyone Johnny knew.

This would be easy. The bounty was some store-robbing punk, only 50,000 Woolongs. Not a large bounty, in fact it was tiny, but Johnny loved work.

As he followed the target from 2 blocks away, he slowly started to slide his pistol out of its holster.

Suddenly, he felt a pressure in the small of his back. A gun barrel.

"You might want to put that away, pal." a familiar voice whispered in his ear.

"Spike?" Johnny asked, surprised.

"Johnny. Thought that was you." Spike chuckled, and lowered his gun.

"What are you doing here, Spike? Thought you didn't go for the small fries."

"We need the money." Spike said, sighing slightly.

"Jet run out of bell peppers and beef?" Johnny asked, smirking.

"Don't tease, I haven't eaten for two days." Spike growled. Or was that his stomach?

"What do you say we work together and split it? Like the good old days."

"Deal."

"He's headed to a bar, two blocks past Caiphon. You know the place?" Johnny asked.

"The Lone Star?"

"That's the one."

Spike slid his pistol back into his shoulder holster. Johnny laughed.

"You still using that old Jericho, Spike?"

Spike shrugged.

"It works."

The bar was almost deserted, seeing as how it was 4:30 in the morning. Only the pathetic and the criminal drank at this hour, it seemed. Spike hung back at the door, while Johnny headed for the bar.

"What'll you have, champ?" the bartender asked.

"Just a Pippu." Johnny replied.

"You sure you're not out past curfew, young man?" the bartender sneered.

"Nope, just on the job."

There was a flurry of movement at one of the tables as the bounty realized who Johnny was. He pulled a gun, a compact machine pistol, no time to ID it before the perp opened fire.

He was a terrible shot, thankfully, the light weight of the gun doing nothing to stabilize the weapon.

Johnny dove to the floor, pulling his Smith & Wesson as he hit the ground.

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME, COWBOY!" the bounty yelled, running to the door, and straight into Spike's fist.

Johnny exhaled heavily, the action always made him feel alive, reminded him he was cheating death every time he dealt with a perp like this.

"Good going, Spike. Just like it used to be. Speaking of..."

Spike shook out his hand, and looked at Johnny quizzically.

"Where's this going?" he asked, smirking. "You homesick, Johnny?"

"Having to sleep on Martian streets kind of makes me sick, if that counts."

Spike laughed at that one.

"Yeah, sure. Glad to have you 'til you pick up and leave again."

"Just 'til I'm back on my feet."


	2. Flying Teapot

Johnny followed Spike's Swordfish II with his own zip-craft. He called it Emily.

Its design was reminiscent of old ideas of alien spacecraft. A silver dish-like ship, augmented with pincers protruding from the bottom (It was originally designed after an alien war machine from a very old pre-Gateway movie).

Used to be a construction ship, Johnny heard from the salesman. Used secret government hovercraft technology or some such.

Johnny didn't really care for the techniques the salesman had used to gouge him for money, so he just "borrowed" the vehicle from the impound lot after turning the man in on a 2 mil bounty for running an illegal chop shop.

The Ganymede police just eventually let him keep it.

The Bebop was just as much a junker as it had ever been, but that's what gave it the charm few other ships had. No matter how messy and obsolete it got, it'd never let you down.

Emily's radio crackled loudly as she pulled into view of the Bebop.

"Johnny? That you?" Jet asked, quizzical.

"Damn straight it's me, Jet. Who else would be flying a ship this silly?" Johnny replied, laughing.

"That's true! Welcome back, ol' buddy." Jet laughed, too. A big, hearty, warm laugh. Johnny had forgotten how welcoming that laugh was. How great it was to have been missed.

"Whose ship is that in my damn spot, Jet?" Johnny asked, noticing a spherical zipcraft parked in his old spot.

"That'd be Faye." Spike answered.

"Wait, a woman on the ship? Man, Spike, how'd you let that one slide? Next thing you're gonna tell me is there's a kid on board."

Spike groaned, no doubt facepalming.

"Yeah..." he said.

Johnny laughed. Then realized Spike wasn't kidding, which made him laugh harder. He laughed until he docked.

As he got out of Emily, he wiped a tear from his eye.

"I assume my bed is still here?"

"Shit, we sold that the day you left." Spike mumbled.

"The mattress, too?" Johnny asked, in disbelief.

"We needed the Woolongs." Jet said, mumbling.

"God dammit, guys, my mother gave me that mattress before she died! That was the only thing I had to remember her by!" Johnny yelled.

"Sorry, Johnny." Spike shrugged. "Didn't know it meant that much to you."

"It didn't, I'm just screwin' with ya. Found it in a dumpster, honestly." Johnny admitted, laughing. Spike smacked him on the back of the head and headed to work out on the bridge.

"Well, you won't mind finding another one, I hope, because all we've got is the floor." Jet said, rolling his eyes.

"Damn, how many people are on this ship now?" Johnny asked, lighting up a smoke.

"Just the six of us, including you." Jet said.

"So this is the new guy?" A sultry voice echoed from the hallway.

A woman stepped in, sizing Johnny up.

"Looks like a wimp. What good can he be?"

"Well, Jet, aren't you going to introduce me to this lovely lady?" Johnny asked.

The woman rolled her eyes practically out of her head.

"Please, buddy, keep it in your pants." she said.

"Johnny, this is Faye. I don't know why we keep her around, but I guess she does prove helpful at some times. But most of the time it's a waste of time. Faye, this is Johnny. I've known him since he was born. Which means I can trust him more than you." Jet said.

"Johnny, huh? You got a last name?" Faye asked.

"Hey, you got something to call me, don't you? You got all you need with "Johnny"."

"Oh, please. Is that even your real name?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's realer than the one my parents gave me."

At this, Faye left the room. Johnny headed for the bridge.


	3. Ask DNA

The Bebop took off, heading out to the sea of space.

Spike was practicing his Jeet Kune Do on the bridge, in the dark, like he always did.

"You make it look easy, Spike." Johnny observed.

"Have to keep in shape. Plus it's something to do." He replied, not stopping his practice.

"Heard you saved a couple planets while I was gone." Johnny said.

"Yeah, like Ganymede."

"I remember that scare. But why you'd save my shitty little rock of a planet is beyond me. I also heard about that thing on Mars. You must have gotten some heavy barrels of Woolongs for those jobs. What happened to that?"

"Didn't get a single Woolong out of either of them." He sighed. "Beaurocracy. But while we're catching up, I heard a few stories about you, too."

Johnny grinned.

"Like what?"

"Heard you joined the Martian Army after you left."

"That I did. Just the infantry, and just for a tour of duty. Any other stories? It's nice to hear I'm actually important enough to tell stories about."

"Heard you got into some trouble for messing around with a senator's wife."

"That one isn't true. I didn't mess around with her, I didn't get in trouble, and it was a senator's daughter-in-law."

Spike stopped practicing at that.

"Well, tell me about it, buddy."

"Well, I met her at a bar. Her name was Sarah. Beautiful, with dirty blond hair and piercing green eyes. So I start talking to her. She got really interested when I told her I was a cowboy, guess she likes the dangerous life. So then she grabs her drink, and I notice her ring. I don't bring it up, but she sees me eying it. She smiles the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen, and laughs. It's like angels singing. But she asks me to drive her home, as she's been drinking, and her autopilot is on the fritz. Wants me to meet her husband. Said I'd find him interesting."

"Was he?"

"He was kind of creepy, to be honest. Had this smile, but it didn't seem like he meant it. Didn't seem like he was all there. Gave me the shivers. We talked for a while, and I left."

"You think you'll ever see her again?" Spike asked.

"Nah, doubt it." Johnny replied. "I mean, you know me well enough, Spike, you think I'd mess around with a married woman?"

Spike shrugged.

"I doubted you'd have the chance to, but I guess I was wrong about that."

Johnny laughed at that.

"You know what I heard, Spike?"

"What, Johnny?"

"Heard you got into some top secret government black-ops shit."

"Now where did you hear that?"

"Bob. Plus I saw the files on the guy. Got them in my email, from your ship. Who sent them to me? I couldn't sleep for weeks because of the videos in that email!"

"Only person I can think of is Ed."

At that, a shriek of laughter came from the kitchen.

"Tongpu, Fondue, Sun Tz-"

"ED!" Spike yelled.

A lanky child slithered out of the kitchen, like a snake.

"Ed, this is-"

"John-john!"

Spike looked at Johnny.

"You know Ed?"

"Never seen... Ed before in my life. Is that a boy or a girl?"

"Ed's a little girl!" she said.

"How do you know about me, Ed?"

"Ed hacked into your government profile when Ed saw your name on the contact list!" she said.

"So, did you send me that email?"

Ed nodded her head.

"Thanks for the nightmares, kid. Jeez."

Ed laughed at that.

"Scary scary dreams!"

"It's not funny, kid."

Ed ran away with her arms out like an airplane.

Spike sighed, holding his head.

"It may not look like it, but the kid's a hacking genius. You may have heard of Radical Edward." he said.

"Radical Edward? Really? I've played chess against Radical Edward!"

Spike stared.

"When was this?"

"'Bout 2, 3 months ago. Ed almost beat me. Hex would be proud." Johnny said.

"How do you know about Hex?" Spike asked.

"He's common knowledge among chess players, Spike. Don't tell me you've met the guy!"

Spike shrugged, smiling.

"Oh, man, I'm so friggin' jealous! That man's a legend! You lucky bastard! Where was he?"

"Don't bother. He's gone."

"You mean…"

Spike shrugged again.

"I meant he's gone senile, but Ed hasn't been able to play a game with him in 2 and a half months, so…"

"Oh, man…"

There was a moment of silence.

"So, Spike… I heard about Mao."

Spike looked at the floor, and didn't reply.

"You know my feelings on the Syndicate, Spike, but Mao sounded like a nice guy, from the stories you told. I'm sorry, Spike. I know he was like a father to you."

Spike kept silent.

"You ever get the guy who did it?"

"No."

"You'll get him some day, Spike. Don't worry about it."


	4. Don't Bother None

Johnny headed to the workshop/armory of the Bebop to stash his heat.

He'd had to sell quite a few of his weapons, unfortunately. He had owned quite the armory not so long ago; could have made a living as an arms dealer, easy.

But not anymore.

Faye was already in the workshop as he walked in; she was cleaning a Glock 30. It was quite a mess.

"You might want to get a new barrel for that thing. Looks like you haven't properly cleaned it for 3 years." Johnny said, putting his Colt 733 in a mid-sized locker.

"Yeah, whatever." she said, sighing.

"It looks pretty bad. That barrel's gonna get blocked up pretty quick. What brand of ammo you usin'?"

"Wolf." she replied.

"Ah. That explains it. Wolf is cheap. Here, I've got a few extra boxes of Federal. You can have 'em. They're hollow-points, too."

"What's the catch?" Faye asked.

"That you treat your gun better. Maintenance it once in a while. Here, lemme see it." Johnny said, taking the gun from her.

"Oh, man. This thing's almost gone. The striker is dulled, the mag's followers are worn down, hell, even the slide release lever's loose. Haven't seen a gun this beat up for a while!" he continued.

He took an identical pistol out of a locker.

"Here. Use this one. Good as new, only been fired 15 times. Same gun as that. I'll work on yours, and you can use mine in the interim."

"Gee, thanks." Faye groaned. "There an end goal to this whole "nice guy" act?"

"Nope, guess I'm just a nice guy." Johnny replied, grinning.

Faye rolled her eyes at that, and left the armory.

Johnny sat down, and started cleaning the barrel.

Took him an hour to clear all the remnant powder.

Jet walked in.

"Johnny, you up for a job?" he asked.

Johnny rubbed his eyes, they had gotten unfocused from staring down that barrel for so long. He spun his chair to face Jet.

"I'm always ready, Jet. What is it?" he asked back.

"A Syndicate dealer, worth 15 million. Word is he's holed up in an abandoned church on Mars with a small following."

"What's the charge?"

"Other than dealing, he's being charged with three counts of assault, two murders, and public indecency."

"Sounds too easy to be true."

"Probably is, but we can't dwell on that right now."

"I'll need some backup." Johnny pointed out.

"You'll have Spike and Faye. Ed will hack into some satellites around the area and provide surveillance. That's how we found the guy in the first place, with a little suggestion from Spike. Seems the roof's been blown off, so Ed'll be able to tell you where threats are coming from."

"What'll you be doing, Jet?" Johnny asked.

"I'll be providing info on the guy. Make sure we're not getting ourselves in a bad situation. I'll also be providing tactical advice while you assault the church, so you don't get mowed down from behind."

"When are we leaving?" Johnny asked.

"Now." Spike said, appearing in the doorway.


	5. Gotta Knock A Little Harder

The church was on the outskirts of Tharsis City, about 12 kliks away from the nearest building. It was a dump. There seemed to have been a large shootout there in the recent past. At the most, a year ago. The roof was heavily damaged from an explosion, at least, the rubble scattered around the building suggested it.

Faye shivered as the three approached the church. Even Spike seemed a little uneasy.

"Never thought I'd be here again." Spike mumbled.

"Never wanted to be here again." Faye muttered.

Jet's voice buzzed in Johnny's ear.

"Spike, Faye, you two circle around back. Johnny, you go in through the front when Spike breaches the place."

"Will do, pardner." Johnny replied. Spike and Faye got into position without speaking.

There was no sentry at the front door. Good sign.

"Johnny, I'm about to breach. On 3."

"Gotcha."

"1."

Johnny chambered a round in his 5906.

"2."

He flipped the safety off and placed a breaching charge on the door.

"3!"

There was an explosion on the other side of the church, followed by gunfire.

Johnny detonated his own charge and spun into the church.

Two men swung machine pistols to bear, ready for him. Lucky for Johnny, he was quicker than them, and a better shot. He failure drilled the both of them.

Rifle fire broke out from above the altar, hitting the floor in front of Johnny's feet.

Johnny dove behind a pew, picking up one of the machine pistols. A Steyr TMP. A nice little gun, expensive, too. It had 23 rounds left in the mag.

"Man-man on your right, Jon-Jon!" Ed's voice crackled in his ear.

Johnny spun, bringing the TMP up firing. No time for aiming. He brought it up just in time to riddle a thug with bullets as he took aim with his rifle, an H&K G3, it looked like. His TMP clicked empty.

He slung it over his shoulder with the handy sling it had, and scooped up the rifle, sliding his 5906 into its holster.

A grenade landed to Johnny's right. He kicked it, hard, and jumped back. It exploded just as he got out of the casualty radius.

He shouldered the rifle before he got up, and took seven aimed shots, taking out seven guys in the rafters.

As he got up, a bullet tagged him in the top of the left shoulder. No matter. He dropped the G3, and took cover behind another pew.

"Johnny! He ran to the room behind the altar! I'm going in!" Spike yelled.

As Spike opened the door, an explosion rang out. The door was rigged to a flashbang. Spike tried to readjust his eyes, but took two shots to the shoulder, spinning him to the floor.

As Faye took out the last two guys with shots to the neck, the bounty walked out of the room, his gun trained on Spike.

"Drop your weapons or he dies!"

Neither Faye nor Johnny even lowered their guns.

"I MEAN IT!"

Suddenly, his head snapped back, its contents splashing on the wall behind him.

Faye and Johnny ran for cover.

A shot rang out. Far away, at least a mile for that kind of delay.

"Great..." Spike groaned, grasping his shoulder.

"I'm betting it was a Syndicate sniper." Johnny said. He sighed. "All that work for nothing. Dammit! How much do you want to bet that the Syndicate put that bounty on him themselves, so they didn't have to risk losing any men assaulting the church?"

Faye groaned.

"You think he's gone?" she asked.

"Long gone. He doesn't care about us. He was aiming for our man here. Spike, can you pass me a 'Boro?"

"Get one yourself, I've been shot!" he spat.

"You've still got one arm that hasn't been shot, ya pansy! I'll pay you back, you know I'm good for it!"

Spike tossed the pack of cigarettes to Johnny, who lit one up.

"You want one, Faye?" he asked.

"Don't be pimping out MY cigs, Johnny."

"Don't be selfish, Spike. Easy come, easy go, buddy."

"Yeah, I'll have one." Faye said. Johnny tossed her one.

"Spike, can you fly back?" Jet asked from the Bebop.

"No, but not because his arm's shot, he's just lazy." Johnny laughed.

"Shut up, Johnny. I can just put it on auto, Jet."


	6. Call Me, Call Me

Back on the Bebop, Jet took the bullets out of Spike's shoulder. Johnny's had been a straight through-and-through, tearing through the meat, but leaving no real permanent damage.

"Does it hurt to move it?" Jet asked.

"A bit, but I can still handle myself. I've done jobs in worse shape." Spike replied.

"What's up next, Jet?" Johnny asked.

"Well, you're certainly eager. You don't want to rest?" Faye asked.

"Nope. Gotta keep active." Johnny replied.

"There's a 20 million bounty for a guy named Carter Simmons. Another dealer for the syndicate. Wanted for murder, as well." Jet said.

"Carter Simmons? Senator Simmons' son? Knew there was something off about him." Johnny said.

"You know him?" Jet asked.

"Drove his wife home from a bar, once. Creepy SOB."

"Tip for you, Johnny, it's a bad move to ask his wife out right after we arrest him." Spike laughed.

"Aw, come on, Spike, even for a cup of Joe?" Johnny whined sarcastically.

"Wait at least a week." Spike replied.

"We got any leads?" Faye asked Jet.

"Well, knowing politicians' children, he probably thinks his daddy can protect him. I'd search his dad's house. I'll keep digging for clues."

"I'll ask Sarah." Johnny said.

"You can contact her?" Jet asked.

"She gave me a number to contact her. Don't know why, but hey, not gonna refuse a pretty girl's number."

He punched the number into his phone.

Sarah answered. She didn't sound happy. She sounded scared. Really scared.

"Johnny? Is that you?"

Faye and Spike leaned over Johnny's shoulders to catch a peek.

"Yeah, Sarah, it's me. What's up, is something wrong?"

"It's Carter, he's flying off the handle! I had to lock myself in the bathroom, and he's-"

"Sarah! Get off the phone! RIGHT NOW!"

"I know you're going to be after Carter's bounty. Please, please come get him now. We're at his father's house. He's-"

There was the sound of wood breaking, and the phone went dead.


	7. Words That We Couldn't Say

The door to the senator's house was unlocked. No sentries outside. Inside, a few bodies poked out of doorways, carved up.

Johnny recognized those cuts... They were precise, scarring cuts, not immediately lethal if treated quickly. The same ones on Mom...

She had gotten treatment, though, for all the good that had done her, but these guys had been bound and gagged. Bled out like pigs.

Faye ran outside, retching, but Spike and Johnny continued clearing the house. The blood led to the master bedroom, to a grizzly sight.

A bodyguard's remains were splayed across the bed, his belly cut open, his lips carved off, all of his digits severed. As Johnny headed toward the bathroom, it coughed.

The poor SOB was still alive. Spike rushed over to him, putting his ear to the man's lip-less mouth, moving, whispering.

Johnny ignored the scene, he heard mumbling in the bathroom. It sounded manic, psychotic.

"Daddy and Vicious will be so proud of me! I gave up everything for the Dragon. No attachments, nothing to hold me back!"

Johnny kicked in the bathroom door, pistol ready. He had known he wouldn't like what he would see, but he still wasn't prepared.

Carter cradled his wife's body in the corner of the bathroom, his hands and knife dripping with blood. He hadn't carved Sarah up, he had just slit her throat.

Carter looked at Johnny, he didn't recognize him at first, but when he did, his face twisted into a rage-filled caricature.

Johnny didn't let Carter get up. He pulled the trigger. Once, twice, three times. He lost count. It must have been at least fifteen times, though, because when he stopped, the slide was locked back.

His arms dropped to his side, the gun clattered to the floor. He picked it up after a few moments, then walked out.

Spike stopped him at the master bedroom's door.

"You didn't just drive her home, did you, Johnny? How far did it go?" he asked.

"None of your god damned business, Spike." Johnny muttered, pushing Spike out of the way. "Besides, it doesn't matter now, does it? She's dead. Her husband is dead. We're done here. Let's go home."

"Are you really done here, Johnny? Or are you going to be here for a while?" Spike asked.

"Doesn't matter. I'm getting my shit from the Bebop, and I'm leaving again." Johnny replied.


	8. The Real Folk Blues

"The Syndicate will be after you, Johnny. The senator has connections, and he loved his son dearly." Jet said.

Johnny pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.

"I know that. Carter was also a friend of Vicious. Although, "pet" seems to be a better word. At least, from what I gathered from his ramblings. So, I'm a dead man." he replied.

"You could fight back." Spike said.

Johnny smiled at that.

"No, I couldn't."

He pulled a High-Power out of his foot locker.

"Spike, do you know what this is?" Johnny asked.

"A gun." he replied, eying it carefully.

"It was my dad's. The Van gave it to me after they executed him when he tried to pull off a coup. They gave it to me to remind me what happened to people who went against them. I want you to have this. Maybe it'll remind you what happens to people who go against the Syndicate. And if not, 13 extra rounds of 9mm won't hurt to have."

He paused, seeing Faye come out to the deck.

"Faye, I fixed your Glock!"

He pulled it out of his foot locker.

Faye walked over to retrieve it, when a flash of light made her squint.

Johnny knew what this was. So did Spike. Spike started to move, but Johnny held up his hand to stop him.

"Spike. Don't go getting yourself killed on my behalf. If you get yourself killed, how are you gonna find-"

The Glock skidded off the deck, breaking on impact with the ground below.

Johnny didn't hear the gunshot, it was suppressed, from a mile away. He didn't see the muzzle flash, it was behind him. He did, however, feel the double-tap of the rounds enter and exit his left lung, one piercing an artery.

He didn't have long.

Spike and Faye went prone immediately.

Johnny stumbled to one knee, and fell flat on his face.

Spike crawled over to Johnny, to check his wound, turning him over, shouting his name, but it was all so far away.

Johnny took a moment to notice how beautiful the Martian skyline was. Birds flew peacefully above him. It didn't matter. He didn't matter. Life would go on.

Then he stopped thinking.

On a building a mile away, Shin sighed, and flipped down the lens cover on his scope.

_** See you, Space Cowboy.**_


End file.
